1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of creation and use of timing charts and particularly to computer-assisted production of such charts.
2. Background Information
In designing most digital and some analog systems, designers and engineers have long relied upon the use of timing charts to identify signal dependencies, race conditions, and the like. In a complex chart, a slight change in the timing of one signal may have ripple effects throughout the system, and many signals may be in need of alteration to accommodate such a change.
Prior to this invention, the engineer or draftsman needed to modify the drawing of the signals by hand or at least signal line by signal line on a computer screen in a manual way. The cost in terms of potential errors and person-time was and remains very high.
This has been a significant problem since the advent of complex electronic systems. It only gets worse as clock signals get distributed among more and more components on chips and circuit boards, different kinds of devices with different response times get mixed into systems and alternative processing capabilities get switched in or out for power conservation, increased system throughput based on variable demand and other considerations.
While the components of the system taught by the inventor do exist and are readily available, it is not seen anywhere that this problem has been addressed in the straightforward manner that it has been handled by the inventor herein.